Recently, many manufacturing processes of semiconductor devices adopt an art of sealing electronic components on a substrate with a resin, for the purpose of more securely fixing the electronic components (mainly semiconductor elements or the like) provided on the substrate. In the manufacturing processes adopting the art of sealing, it is desirable to more efficiently seal the electronic components with the resins, in order to attain higher quality of the semiconductor devices, lower manufacturing cost, shorter manufacturing periods, and the like.
Various arts of improving the sealing efficiencies have been disclosed in relation with the art of sealing the electronic component on the substrate with the resin.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes an art in which a fence larger than a bear chip is provided around a region to which the bear chip is to be provided on a wiring board, in order to prevent a resin from widely spreading out of the region when the bear chip on the wiring board is sealed with the resin.
Patent Literature 2 describes an art in which a solder resist section has a trench part for impounding therein a liquid resin so as to prevent, if more than a required amount of the liquid resin is fed, the liquid resin from overflowing to a substrate.
Patent Literature 3 describes an art in which a gap (clearance) between (i) each side of an outer shape of an IC chip and (ii) a peripheral part of an opening in an insulating protective film is set to 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm.
Patent Literature 4 describes an art of preventing an underfilling resin from being easily exfoliated from a flexible substrate when the flexible substrate is bent. According to the art of Patent Literature 4, (i) an opening section of an insulating protective film is provided in a region outer than a region where an electronic component is mounted, i.e., a region where an applied force is concentrated most, and (ii) the underfilling resin is firmly adhered to the flexible substrate in the opening section.
(Conventional Semiconductor Device)
The following describes a conventional semiconductor device which employs the art in which the electronic component provided on the substrate is sealed with the resin. FIG. 7 is a view showing a top side of a conventional semiconductor device 700. FIG. 8 is a view showing a lateral cross section of the conventional semiconductor device 700.
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the semiconductor device 700 includes a substrate 702, a wiring pattern 704, an insulating protective film 706, and a semiconductor element 708. Each of FIGS. 7 and 8 shows the semiconductor device 700 for which a filling agent 710 (which is later discussed in FIG. 9) has not been applied yet.
The substrate 702 is a so-called flexible substrate, which is flexible. The wiring pattern 704 is provided on a surface of the substrate 702. The surface of the substrate 702 on which the wiring pattern 704 is provided is covered with the insulating protective film 706 which has an insulting property.
The insulting protective film 706 has an opening section 706a provided in a region where the semiconductor element 708 is provided. In this conventional example, the semiconductor element 708 has a rectangular outer shape. Accordingly, the opening section 706a has a rectangular shape substantially same as the outer shape of the semiconductor element 708.
The opening section 706a has a size greater than the semiconductor element 708. Specifically, each side of the rectangular shape of the opening part 706a is longer in length than a corresponding side of the rectangular shape of the semiconductor element 708 by 0.4 mm to 1.0 mm. As such, a space d1 between a peripheral part of the opening section 706a and a peripheral part of the semiconductor element 708 is set to 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm.
The semiconductor element 708 is provided on the surface of the substrate 702 within the opening section 706a, and is connected with the wiring pattern 704 via an electrode 708a of the semiconductor element 708.
(Feeding of with Filling Agent 710)
Further, in the conventional semiconductor device 700 shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the filling agent 710 (see FIG. 9) is fed so as to attain the aforementioned objective. FIG. 9 is a view showing, in magnification, the lateral cross section of the conventional semiconductor device 700 for which the filling agent 710 has already been fed. Specifically, after mounting of the semiconductor element 708 on the substrate 702, the filling agent 710 is fed to an inside of the opening section 706a provided on the substrate 702.
A dispenser 900 is used for feeding the filling agent 710. The dispenser 900 is loaded with a sufficient amount of the filling agent 710 in advance. The feeding of the filling agent 710 is carried out by positioning a nozzle section 902 of the dispenser 900 at a given location (e.g., a location P1 shown in FIG. 7) in the space between the opening section 706a and the semiconductor element 708 at first. Then, the dispenser 900 is moved along the space while the filling agent 710 is being discharged from a tip of the nozzle section 902, so as to feed the filling agent 710 to the inside of the opening section 706a. By this, the filling agent 710 is fed in the entire opening section 706a. 